


Two Lies and A Truth

by heli0s



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M, Lie to Me, Mystery, Slow Burn, slight crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-28
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2018-08-27 12:08:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8401129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heli0s/pseuds/heli0s
Summary: After a turbulent and draining career of being a Human Lie Detector, you move south in hopes of living blissfully in peace. Unfortunately, trouble seems to find you no matter where you hide. Eventual Reader/Reid.





	

_10:00 AM_

It was Tuesday when you received a call from a stern-sounding man named Aaron Hotchner. Usually you wouldn’t have picked up the phone, but the number was obviously from a federal line and you feared the worst. Over the past few weeks, you’d receive many messages people asking for your “expertise” after seeing you in the local paper and trending viral articles. Of course, it was mostly from men or women who wanted to figure out if their partner was being unfaithful, so you declined, but Aaron Hotchner had a very different sort of request.

Like, FBI, sort of request.

“I’m not sure if you’ve seen the news, but last week the bodies of two teen-aged girls were found and a third one has been reported missing by her family just this morning. The community in which they live are hesitant to talk to police,”

You grimaced, “Yes, I’ve heard about it,” You imagined on the other line, there was a gaunt man with long dark hair—a little Professor Snape-y, perhaps, pacing. He sounded like he was the strong and silent type, likely the section leader, so being tall would have worked out in his favor.

“Our analyst has heard of you and she suggested since our case was close by your location, perhaps we could call you in for a consult,”

You hesitated. Well, Agent Hotchner, reason you moved across the country to a small town in Texas was because you didn’t want to be looking at dead bodies all day. Not that your last gig was full of dead bodies, anyway, but the one or two on occasion were more than enough. Sometimes, if you were lucky enough, there was a car bomb.

It seemed like the universe was working against your personal vacation.

The truth was, it was pure coincidence that you had stumbled onto an open investigation while substituting at a local high-school. When you moved south to Dallas, you decided why not make the most of your bachelor’s in secondary education and do something a little more normal? Ms. _L/N_, the High School English teacher was so ordinary it was perfect. 

The morning you checked into the office, you’d run into a teacher who was next door to your 12th grade classroom with his hair in disarray. At first you brushed it off, he probably just missed an alarm and woke up late… except for the fact that his eyes showed no sign of a person who’d just rolled out of bed; the tell-tale heavy lids were missing, if anything- he seemed more alert. He was also impeccably clean-shaven; you could distinctly smell deodorant, aftershave, and cologne. He also had taken a shower, brushed his teeth (and used mouthwash!), and had time to stop for coffee.

Honestly, _honestly_ , you wanted to leave it alone. It wasn’t your business. However, you also smelled another scent- a perfume that was distinctly more alcohol than essential fragrance, so it was probably cheap. It was light, floral, hints of citrus, and much too young to be any of the teachers that were employed at the school. You cursed your senses for betraying the idyllic life you’d fantasized about.

After following him down the corridor to your own classroom just a step over, you caught it the tell-tale sign: the glance to and from another student, and the quick scratch to the bottom of his nose.

 

“Were you able to get her?” Penelope’s voice was on the other end of the line, bubbling with excitement, “She is like- let me be complete frank and honest, if not a tad bit fangirly- she is Veritas reincarnated into a mere mortal form. The THINGS she can see, hear, and likely taste, smell, and touch… Oh my god, it is phenomenal--”

Derek glanced around the room as the voice in his hand continued to chatter on. A single eyebrow was raised- he knew better than to try and stop Penelope Garcia when she was on her roll. Only one person here had that type of power.

“Garcia,” Hotchner chided softly,  
“One look at you with those piercing hawk eyes- just a whiff of your scent- just a single TOUCH, and all your secrets---“  
  
“ _Garcia_.”

This time he was serious.   
Small smiles pulled at the corners of everyone’s lips.

“Sorry, sir. Um, yes, the missing girl… a Jennifer Li, 16 years old, attended St. John’s High School… I have dug through her phone records and she was texting a burner cellphone two weeks before her disappearance.  Once I get those messages specifically, I’ll give you a call.”

“Thanks, mama.” Derek put the phone back in his pocket.

Hotchner looked around the room at his colleagues, they were all expectant, of course. It was rare that the team ever needed to ask an outsider to consult, but unfortunately, the investigation involved more than 40 suspects and the last family was extremely closed off to police questioning. There was an obvious issue that needed another look at by someone with fresher eyes.

“So,” Rossi began, “Did she agree to come in?”

Hotchner nodded, “She should be here within the hour. I’ve already sent her the case file. Reid, you and Morgan will take her to the family. Blake and I will have another look at the first two dump sites, JJ, you and Rossi talk to the local media- let’s try to get the word out.”

“You know, I’ve heard about her too,” JJ commented, “Will showed me the online article they ran after that high school teacher was arrested, it was kind of huge.”

“What happened?” Reid, on the other hand, had no idea who she was due to the fact that he never followed anything online. He preferred to get his news from the good old fashioned paper, which didn’t happen to run cases in Texas.

JJ’s eyebrows went up with a smile, “Well, this high school was investigating rumors about an inappropriate teacher-student relationship for a couple of weeks with no leads, but then one day, she just happened to be subbing and cracked it within a couple of hours,”

“That’s impressive,” Morgan breathed,

“That’s not all,” Hotchner interjected, looking at JJ now to finish the story.

“Yeah, she also found out that the teacher who was sleeping with a student, previously had another inappropriate relationship with _another_ girl….” She trailed off.

The room quieted, everyone’s eyes fixed solely on her,

“Whom he killed.”


End file.
